solovino88's "Ancient Guards": Chapter 1

PREMISE:

This work follows Cloud Strife & Co. as they travel around the world avoiding the prosecution from Shinra Air Forces as well as try to stop the powerful Ultima WEAPON. In their way they discover two ancient powers who may lend some help to the heroes to stop the threat Sephiroth represents.

DISCLAIMERS:

Cloud, Nanaki/Red XIII, Vincent, Tifa, Barret, Cid, Caith Sith, Aerith and Yuffie, as well as all the characters from the game "Final Fantasy VII" are all © by Square Enix.

The world of "Final Fantasy VII" is © to Square Enix.

The following narration is © by Solovino88, the Author of this work. It is released under the CREATIVE COMMONS Share-Alike License. See for more details. In short: you're free to use this work as a basis for your fanfiction, as long as you keep this in the domain of Creative Commons and credit both me and S.E. for the narration and the characters, respectively.

THE STORY:

"MNN — MIDGAR NEWS NETWORK"

"...On the most recent news, - the voice of the Anchorman was heard from the TV in the cabin – Shinra President, Mr. Rufus Shinra, addressed the people of Rocket Town concerning the devastation caused by last week's WEAPON attack:

"There's no actual method to trace its movement, mostly because of its incredible flying speed. Therefore, before any other city is to be attacked, I've sent Special Forces Units to each of the world's major cities, in order to take control of all military forces worldwide. Martial Law will be imposed in Midgar, Junon, and Kalm. This is a coordinated attempt to prevent, resist and repel any further attack from those demons, or the ecoterrorists that summoned them."

A hand reached to the remote and turned the TV off.

- Don't worry, Marlene, they are all right. - said Aerith's mother, Elmyra.

- I know... I just miss dad and the flower lady. Why can't they even call home?

- Well we're not there anymore... this man has been nice to hide us here but it is still too dangerous to go to the streets.

Elmyra looked at the envelope with some Gil and papers over the table. Of course they were not hiding, they were kidnapped by a mysterious man, but as they had not been harmed and actually the man took care of them, hiding them from Shinra soldiers and providing food and shelter, she tried to at least trust back.

"Oh... these WEAPON are terrible creatures. Hope Aerith and Barret are all right... But... Cloud is with them. They'll be all safe... I know, they will be back... someday."

The older woman gave a goodnight kiss to the child and retrieved the papers inside the envelope. It was an activity report of the Kalm police, detailing some alleys and passages safe to use to reach the meat store. She picked some of the money and took off.

- Still can't reach them? - Tifa was getting exasperated.

- Come on, he's MY DAMN PILOT, we'll damn reach there before anything bad damn happens. - Cid was nervous too, but he implicitly trusted his apprentice to lead the airship to its destination safe and sound. - We'll be there soon.

- Cid, have you checked on the inventory? That WEAPON thingie is to be hard to beat, even more if we have to fight it airborne again.

- Nah... - Cid looked back at where Cloud was polishing the Buster Sword. A "Counterattack" Materia embedded in one of the slots. - We can get close and battle airborne for a while. Inventory is not the problem.

- I know... Flying around trying not to be a target is.

Cid took of to the engines section followed by Cloud and Vincent. They all ignored the young brat who was again feeling airsick, a pot on her side.

Cloud and Vincent lend Cid a hand to check on the engines, the Turbo Meter, and the outer shields. True, they knew nigh to nothing about machinery (Vincent had some Turks training, but that was about half a century ago), but with some instructions from Cid and a lot of patience, measurements and corrections were accomplished.

An alarm went off and a feminine voice sounded in the speaker.

Tifa: "Cid! Ultima WEAPON on sight! It's heading to Gongaga!"

- What!! We're so late already!

- Mmm... - Vincent stood emotionless, trying to devise a strategy. - It's obviously heading to places where great concentrations of Mako have been pulled off. I can't really understand its purpose..

- It does not matter. - Cloud intercepted: - We are just over him. Who's to come with me?

Most of the group gathered in the bridge. Only Nanaki, Yuffie and Tifa were absent. They chatted for some minutes trying to come up with a strategy. Their record against such formidable enemy was not very promising: after a first attack at Mideel, when Cloud and Tifa were stranded in the town hospital, Cid forced WEAPON to run away by having the Highwind torpedo it. The creature received not a scratch. After that, they were forced to flee twice when they faced the creature airborne. Ultima had rammed and fired against them. Nanaki saved Barret from being erased from existence by a very powerful beam attack. Of all the team members, only Yuffie kept absent from the fights, as she felt really sick when flying, even worse when fighting airborne.

In their fourth encounter, Cloud managed to land a Meteorain technique and distract Ultima for some time, long enough for the party to summon Leviathan and Bahamut... but even they did not dealt a damage high enough. Ultima WEAPON turned away only when the Shinra Air Forces was spotted in the horizon, one of their planes carrying a Huge Materia decoy. A later report indicated that the decoy carrier, as well as 12 Hornets and over 30 fighters were downed by the sheer power of the flying WEAPON. Caith Sith, the double agent serving for Shinra, later revealed to the team that, of the crew of the decoy plane, only Elena, a recently hired member of the Turks, survived the attack.

Their fifth encounter was a complete disaster. When they came to Rocket Town, Ultima WEAPON was already there, crushing the mountains right south or the city and causing massive landslides. Tifa and Cid tried a machine gun mounted on the airship, to no effect. Vincent and Nanaki managed to land on the creature's torso and blast it some, Vincent's gun actually doing some damage. But then Ultima shook them off and Cid had to dive with the airship to rescue them from a mile-and-a-half freefall. Ultima seized that moment to charge up its main beam attack, and when Cid look up, a giant, green energy ball was heading towards them. With no time to charge a counterattack or summon a creature, Cid was forced to steer the airship out of the beam's way and the party had to look with their own eyes how the beam crushed the city, exploding in fiery green balls in all directions. The southern side of the city was completely leveled, and official reports stated at least Gil12M in damages and over 300 lives lost.

Their sixth encounter was more a race than a battle. The Shinra Air Forces tried to drive Ultima Weapon far from Junon and the Highwind steered right in their way. Ultima chased them all over the continental coastline and they only managed to get rid of the creature when Cloud and Nanaki combined their Limit Breaks to provide some distraction. That time they were quite lucky, as among the debris left after the battle the team found some valuable armor and Yuffie even found a "Curse Ring" inside a plaque, similar to dragon scale, seemingly left over by Ultima during its run off.

Now a new battle was coming. The group was well prepared. Vincent went outside, to call in Nanaki, who spent his time in the top of the airship, enjoying the wild breeze. Nanaki came in quite furious, and Vincent quite chatty... he had managed to devise a strategy and was discussing it with Nanaki, the other party member considered "old enough" to merit some serious discussion for Vincent. He, as the rest of the team, no longer called Nanaki by his "pet name" under Shinra; one of the parting gifts Aerith left for the team was a tremendous respect towards Nanaki's real name.

"Cloud, Barret, Nanaki: you are to lead the battle, as you are the only ones, besides me, who can deal damage from a safe distance. Let's lure the creature into attacking Nanaki, who has the best agility and endurance of you three. Nanaki, you must keep that thing busy enough to let the Highwind take a safe spot close to the nearby hills. Then Cloud and Barret will support you to attack directly."

"It won't be a problem..." Nanaki responded. "Just make sure you keep aim at that things's chest, I'm going all out for its head, see how pesky can I be when I'm out for it."

"Unleash all of your power against the creature" Vincent continued, this time to Cloud and Barret. "Tifa, Cait Sith and I will then cast as much magic abilities as we can to drive the creature to land close to the Gongaga Reactor. If what I think is true, its greed for Mako will serve a purpose as we keep close to the reactor and to the ground. There Yuffie and Cid will summon Neo Bahamut to complete the job."

"How long does it take to summon that?" Tifa asked.

"About three minutes," responded Yuffie, "but the problem is that with all of us busy, the airship and the town are defenseless until we complete the spell..."

"That's why the distraction is important." Vincent doubled. "If that monster survives even that attack, we may have to flee and leave the town to a sure destruction. But this is all we've got."

With these words, Cloud took his equipment. He substituted the Counterattack Materia with a Magic Counter and paired it with a high-leveled Contain Tifa had previously lend to him. Nanaki was to fight closer to the creature, equipped with his Father's pin and a Regen level Materia, for that he was to need them. Barret took up his best weapons and equipped a set of Counterattack Materia to make sure he would be able to attack the creature continuously during the mess.

As soon as they approached the town, Ultima WEAPON came to their encounter, letting out an otherworldly screech. A couple minutes later a tremendous battle was being fought in the skies. Nanaki had already managed to get close to Ultima and kept viciously slashing at the creature's head. Barret and Cloud slashed and fired from the upper deck, the airship performing the most complicated stunts to make sure they would keep right under the creature, thus the warriors landing their hits in the creature's lower chest. This way not only was Nanaki safe from friend damage, but also it allowed to always detect the moment when Ultima was trying to counter their attacks. Ultima WEAPON tried to overcome the invasion in its personal space by casting powerful beam attacks as well as the namesake spell, but Cloud quickly countered with Freeze and Blade Beam to distract the enemy and prevent it from unleashing the most powerful magic attack.

Suddenly, Ultima WEAPON grew infuriated and took down to the ground. It was the perfect chance. Cid released a series of smoke veils around the reactor, and took the Highwind to the closest hill while Vincent and Cait Sith joined the fray. Tifa supported Barret's attacks to make sure Ultima could not shove off Nanaki. Yuffie and Cid were almost ready with the spell when the creature detected them and started charging its super-powerful Beam Attack.

- Cloud...! Beam to your left! Stop it! - Nanaki cried to warn Cloud from the impending danger.

- I'm almost there!

Cloud jumped towards Ultima clearing a tremendous distance and stood right in front of the WEAPON. He decided to attempt a Finishing Touch so that if the attack could not be prevented, it would be at least redirected away from the town. Barret charged his Ungarbeam, too, but before any of them could perform a move, Ultima raised its claws and lift off a giant cloud of debris. Cloud and Tifa entered the debris trying to target the enemy, and were met with a powerful slash that knocked both of them.

- Barret...! Left sixty degrees! - managed to shout Tifa.

- At it... Now take this! - Barret released a powerful beam from the cannon arm... and the beam just slightly missed Ultima's head, clearing the surrounding smoke too.

- Darn...

Ultima turned back to face Barret and raised its claws to get him, but a tremendous shock pushed the creature away. Tifa landed two or three more blows to the creature's chest and attempted a Somersault, until Cloud came out from the debris and charged his Climhazzard. Suddenly, as if understanding the triple attack was a distraction, Ultima WEAPON took of to the skies, quickly flying west. Nanaki landed close to Cloud, perceiving Ultima was to take off as quickly as possible. Barret got up and tried to aim at the creature, but it was already reaching the western forests, out of reach.

- Damn, it escaped us again. - Cid came through Barret's intercom. - We were almost ready with the summon.

- Yeah... it's Fort Condor all over again, huh?

- Tifa, Barret... Are you all OK there?

- What kind of question is THAT? - Tifa shouted at her intercom. A screech was heard and Barret managed to keep from taking the piece off his ear. - What did you think this was, sparring?

- Worry not, we're fine... - Barret took a look to the battlefield.

Cloud's hair was all messed up (more than normal), and his jacket and shoes were damaged beyond repair. Nanaki was sweating in the ground, tremendously tired, and Tifa's arm was bleeding, although not profusely. Barret's machine gun had long ago ran out of ammo.

- We're in perfect condition. That bastard feared for its life and fled...

End of Chapter 1...